Jenson Button celebrates his second Formula One victory after leading the Brawn GP team to a winning debut in Australia.

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP)  Jenson Button won the season-opening Australian Grand Prix on Sunday, beating teammate Rubens Barrichello and giving Brawn GP a 1-2 finish in its first race.

Button led from start to finish, with the race finishing under caution after a late crash.

Defending Formula One champion Lewis Hamilton finished fourth but was elevated to third by a post-race stewards' decision that penalized Toyota's Jarno Trulli for overtaking under safety-car conditions.

It was the first time since 1977 — when Jody Scheckter won for Wolf — that a team had won its debut in F1, and the third time that a team finished first and second in its first attempt. Alfa Romeo did it in the first-ever Grand Prix in Britain in 1950, and Mercedes did it at the French GP in 1954.

It was only the second GP win for Button, who is in his 10th year. He averaged 121.649 mph at the 3.3-mile Albert Park circuit and finished in 1:34:15.784.

The win capped a remarkable turnaround for the former Honda team which was at risk of disbanding in the offseason when the Japanese automaker pulled out of F1. Team principal Ross Brawn took over the team, which benefited from development spending for 2009 by its former owner last year.

"This is a fairytale ending for the first race," Button said. "Some people may say it's a pity the race finished under the safety car but I don't care, I won the race and that's all I care about."

Further boosting Brawn GP spirits was knowing that the past three winners of the Australian GP went on to win the championship.

Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel and BMW's Robert Kubica collided while running second and third with only four laps to go, bringing out the safety car. Vettel was fined $50,000 for continuing around the track on three wheels.

Buemi became the fourth-youngest driver in history to earn a championship point.

For the second straight year, Ferrari finished without a point in the season opener. Felipe Massa was running in third before his steering went on lap 45, three laps after Kimi Raikkonen spun out.

"It's true we are not where we want to be, so we will need to do some work to improve it," Raikkonen said.

A crash at the first corner ended the race for McLaren's Heikki Kovalainen, and forced BMW's Nick Heidfeld, Red Bull's Mark Webber and Force India's Adrian Sutil to pit, effectively ending their chances.

Button quickly established a 4- to 5-second lead over Vettel he held for most of the race, but the Englishman struggled with his tires as the day got cooler and a braking error created a flat spot. The gap was sliced to 1.5 seconds, but he held on to win.

"It wasn't my best race I must say, but I still won so I'm chuffed to bits," Button said, adding he felt there was still room for improvement.

Barrichello looked to have blown his podium chances with a poor start that dropped him from second to seventh. But he survived contact in the first corner shunt and a safety car period — caused by a Kazuki Nakajima spin — and closed the gap. The Brazilian appeared destined for fourth before Kubica and Vettel took each other out.

"After qualifying in second place yesterday I was hoping we could finish first and second, but a millisecond after the start I never really thought we could imagine to finish that way," Barrichello said. "It's all a dream to say that we finished first and second for a new team."

It was his best finish since leaving Ferrari after the 2005 season.

Trulli, who started in pit lane after stewards determined the cars Toyota used in Saturday's qualifying were illegal due to over-flexible rear wings, had the joy of standing on the podium before stewards penalized him 25 seconds, dropping him to 12th.

Button's win and Brawn's performance will be subject to an FIA hearing after next weekend's Malaysian Grand Prix. Ferrari, Red Bull and Renault had appealed a stewards' decision here to clear Brawn, Toyota and Williams to race, arguing the rear diffusers of the three teams breached F1 regulations.

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